Check our this smile

Lucas finally lost a front tooth. The tooth fairy was very generous for such a small tooth and left him $5! Losing this tooth has changed his whole look, from little boy to one well on his way to becoming a big boy.

March 7, 2010 Sick kids, Sunshine and Spiders

Two days last week I stayed home from work nursing Charlotte who came down with a fever and sore throat. Nothing serious thankfully, but here in Africa my imagination ran wild. Is a simple fever malaria? A stomach upset cholera? Is there some unnamed disease just waiting to latch on to my precious girl? A quick trip to the medical unit and my fears were allayed, a simple flu virus, not even something that needs to be treated with antibiotics. Home we went with a prescription for fluids and rest. On day 3 the fever broke and she felt much better.

I brought with us a veritable pharmacy from the States and have something for every contingency from pink eye to giardia. Most used are the usual things like band aides and ibuprofen. There are pharmacy's here in Harare, well stocked ones I might add. Nearly everything you might need is available if you can afford it and nothing here is cheap. With my stocked medicine chest I have not needed to buy anything, but I wander in once in awhile to gauge what is available and how much. When I see the prices for the simplest things, I think about my gardener who makes less than $100 per month and has a family to care for. How does he do it? Do they just do without?

This weekend was glorious, after week of non-stop rain, the sun finally came out yesterday. Everything is so green and lush and beautiful and I imagine after a few days of sun, will be even more so. From what locals tell me, we are getting to the tail end of the rainy season and will have a few months of continued glorious weather before "winter" come along . They call it "winter" but in fact it means dry and not as warm. There is rarely frost and it is not unusual for days to reach well into the 70's. We arrived last year in the dead of winter, mid July, and loved it! The dry season is nice because there are not as many bugs.

Speaking of bugs, my completely bug phobic daughter, Charlotte, has come a long long way in her handling of the various and often quite icky bugs of Zimbabwe. Lucas, on the other hand, has become quite the bug expert. Thankfully, we don't get too many mosquitos, house flies can be a bother and if you leave fruit out to spoil, fruit flies will take over. We have been lucky and not had too many ants, the flying ants were rather nasty for awhile, but we figured out how to keep them out of the house (towels to cover the openings at the bottom of doors and Raid around the exterior of the windows). Chungalulus are big, black millipedes that come out after a rain, but mostly they stay outdoors. In the house we see mostly spiders, great big, flat ones that move as quick as lightening. Everyone tells us they are the spiders to have because they eat the "mozzies" and don't bother with the people. If you wanted to smash one you would be hard pressed to because, like I said, they are fast. The photos above is of the most unusual spider I have seen, this one was outside (well away from the house) and had built a most spectacular web. As long as the bugs stay outside, they are safe. Come in my house and they will be squished.

Love, Shannon

January 17, 2010 Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

We have been in Africa for 6 months now. Time is flying by as is the usual case when you are busy carrying on with everyday life. We have had some amazing experiences, wild rides and the most aggravating and frustrating times imaginable. Jordan came for a few weeks over the holidays and it was wonderful to have her with us, because we love and miss her and also because it gave us the opportunity to see Zimbabwe all over again with fresh eyes. What would she see? What would she think about it all. Having folks visit is great for us because it gives us an excuse to be tourists again, break out of the routine and experience this amazing place. I am trying to take advantage of living in Africa, scheduling trips and outings so that we can continue our explorations. In the upcoming months we are hoping to go for a couple of nights to Antelope Park, a wildlife sanctuary about 3 hours from Harare and to Mozambique to enjoy the Indian Ocean beaches for a few days. Our big trip will be this summer when we go for the first time to Disney World and the beach in Florida. Everyone is looking forward to a little Disney and a lot of Americana!

So, what did we do over the holidays... Our holidays started with the holiday show at the kids school. Each had a part either singing, dancing or playing an instrument. We had no idea that over the last couple of months Charlotte had learned to play the Marimba, heck a few months ago I didn't even know what a Marimba was! In addition to her Marimba playing, she sang with 8 girls, with her class and did a rhythmic gymnastics routing. It wasn't just a holiday show it was a talent show! Lucas sang and danced with his class.. Caribbean Christmas was the theme. Following the show the 1 month long break began. International schools usually schedule long breaks over Christmas because many family opt to go home, wherever that is, and because some places are so far, they stay a long time. For us, here in Zimbabwe, the break was about a week too long.

Jordan arrived just as school got out and we got into the Christmas spirit right away, even though it was 80 degrees! Our Christmas "juniper" turned out to be quite lovely and without the needle mess. Christmas cookies were baked as was traditional dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes. I even made up our (read my) favorite Christmas day casseroles. Santa was as generous as usual and everyone enjoyed a day of lounging and playing. My big gift this year was a Kindle and I LOVE it. Having such a wide range of books so easily accessible, both to purchase and the read has been wonderful.

After Christmas we flew out to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 wonders of the world. It is truly a "must" see... absolutely spectacular. There really are no words, nor safety rails. You can get perilously close to the edge which made viewing with Lucas a bit worrisome. Still, the falls are amazing and the rainforest ecosystem that surrounds the falls something to behold. We also enjoyed a day in Botswana at the Chobi National Park where we saw more elephants than imaginable and the piece de resistance being our leopard siting... not just one, but a mom leopard and your young cub. It was utterly breathtaking. Lucas also had his day on the zip line mastering all three consecutive difficulties... flying fox, zip line and the heart stopping gorge swing. I must have lost my mind that day to let him do something like that in Zimbabwe. But all was well and we only had to endure a lengthy adrenaline rush as a result of the swing.

Jordan's stay was all to short and soon she was heading back to the States to continue her studies. She started a masters program last fall to get her Masters in Special Education so she can begin teaching autistic children. We are all so proud of her.

Not much else going here. We are in the midst of the rainy season with can mean everything from rain all day long, to rain for 5 min, sun for 5 min, more rain and so on. The garden is at its most loveliest, green and lush, and the bugs at their most buggiest. Somehow we are becoming less and less upset by the bugs. Desensitization at its finest!

Love, Shannon

November 26, 2009 African Thanksgiving

Our first African Thanksgiving, complete with four small turkeys, gallons of gravy, buckets of mashed potatoes and a house full of friends. What better way to spend a day of thanks.

Love, Shannon